Trump Admin’s Proposed ‘English-Only’ Head Start Rule Draws Fire From Los Angeles Mayoral Candidate

Los Angeles City Councilmember and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman criticized the Trump administration Tuesday over a proposed federal rule that would require Head Start programs nationwide to conduct all education in English, taking aim at the policy as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) considers a sweeping overhaul of the federal preschool program.

Raman said in an X thread that the proposed change would move Head Start away from multilingual instruction and disproportionately affect communities such as Los Angeles, where large numbers of children enter classrooms speaking a language other than English at home. The proposal comes as California Head Start programs serve tens of thousands of dual-language learners.

“As mayor, I will fight back against Trump’s plan to gut a program that gives every LA child a strong start,” she said. “I’ll bring the full weight of the mayor’s office to fight this cruel mandate and work with our school district to call for a joint lawsuit if needed to protect our families’ rights.”

Corey DeAngelis, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, responded to Raman’s criticism in a statement to Fox News Digital, arguing the debate over language instruction underscored broader problems with the federal program.

“Head Start should be sunset,” he said. “The gold-standard federal evaluation found it does not improve student outcomes in any lasting way, and it costs taxpayers a ton of money.”

The Trump administration’s proposed Head Start overhaul, announced by HHS in August, would require programs to “conduct all education to children in English.” Children whose native language is not English and who do not speak English would have to receive priority for English instruction. Certain American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start programs using Tribal languages would be exempt.

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{snip} Federal officials estimated roughly one-third of non-Tribal Head Start classrooms could be affected by the language change.

California received nearly $1.5 billion in annual operations funding for Head Start Preschool and Early Head Start in fiscal year 2024, according to the federal Office of Head Start. {snip}

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